using pre installed hardware after installing linux ubuntu
 

So I want to upgrade from Windos 8 to Ubuntu. after I install Ubuntu I am curious about if already installed hardware such as a web cam will work, and how do I use it on this OS. another idea I had to get Ubuntu on my laptop is to erase the hard drive and then install Ubuntu. but then again, I don't know how to use features such as a web cam on Ubuntu, would I need to have driver disks so it would work?

Ubuntu is reasonably good at auto-detecting hardware.

The first step is to boot from a Ubuntu Live CD/DVD/USB. That lets you run Ubuntu without installing it on your hard drive, so you can see if everything works.

I've tried to do that, I have Ubuntu on a disc ready to install and I've even just tried booting from a disc to run it like you can without installing it but my lap top won't boot from a CD. I went into the UEFI to change the boot speed, turned secure boot off. when I try to boot from a disc it says something along the lines of no disc in the media drive. so I'm thinking about trying a usb drive boot and install later today. I tried a micro sd card, that didn't work.

I don't have experience with UEFI, but someone else will probably be able to help with that. Or maybe the Live USB will work.

Yeah.. this new UEFI is annoying. I think Microsoft tried to use it so people couldn't go and install Linux like you could on windows 7. it was too easy, they hate the fact more and more people are turning away from Windows. thank you for the help.

I found this, which may be helpful:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

If you had windows 8 installed on the computer it is definiteyly using UEFI and also most likely has Secure Boot and Fastboot or some similarly named option which deals with hibernation. You may have multiple options for booting from usb and or CD/DVD. You are not clear about your laptop not booting from a CD, do you mean you have no CD drive or that the particular CD you have won't boot.

How did you put Ubuntu on the disc? You just can't copy the downloaded iso image to a disc. You need to burn an iso image to the disc. See this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto
Be sure to burn the disc at the slowest possible speed to avoid errors.
If you open the disc on a windows machine it should have multiple files and folders on it. If the disc only contains the iso image it was not done correctly.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootFromCD
If you want to try installing Ubuntu from a flash drive see this:
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...ick-on-windows
Be sure to set the computer to boot from the usb as the first boot device in the BIOS. If you are going to install from a disc set the optical drive as the first boot device.